The Medical Association for Prevention of War notes with concern today’s announcement by Energy Minister Martin Ferguson that the Australian Government will pursue Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory as the preferred site for a nuclear waste dump.

MAPW President Dr Bill Williams said today:

“Mr Ferguson is quoted as saying that the waste requiring storage in this dump is isotopes used in medical treatments. This dump is absolutely not needed for this purpose. MAPW believes that the safest current option for management of this toxic waste is likely to be continued storage at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.”

“The decision to store the waste on Aboriginal land at Muckaty station fails to meet world standards, either for scientific appraisal, or for community consultation.”

“The Minister has not fully assessed all options available for storage of the waste, including the costs, risks and benefits of continued storage at Lucas Heights,” Dr Williams said.

MAPW policy notes that nuclear waste is a long-lived and serious environmental hazard, and remains an unresolved problem in every place that has nuclear power or nuclear weapons.

The policy also notes that that Indigenous Australians have already suffered from imposition of nuclear contamination through the British nuclear bomb tests at Maralinga.

Read the full policy at: http://www.mapw.org.au/about-mapw/policies/nuclear-waste